Juice Fast - Day 7

photo by shanska mattuplevelser

I'm on Day 7 of my modified juice fast, and I feel amazing.

I can't believe how much better I feel now, than I did a week ago.  I definitely have a dietary sensitivity to something, and I had no idea.  I've had achilles pain, knee and shoulder pain and neck pain for years, but I just kind of thought that's how a person felt as they got older and had kids.  After just a few days of eating only fruits and veggies, none of those things hurt any more.

It really makes me wonder about how much some of my family members have suffered with arthritis, lupus and fibromyalgia.  I've read that some integrative doctors believe that rheumatoid arthritis is a dietary reaction to animal protein.  The disease that was so terrible for my pap that he could barely move, that hunched his shoulders and curled his hands into swollen claws, maybe it all could have been prevented if he'd eaten different things.

It's weirdly mind blowing.
I have always thought that I was quickly headed to an arthritic, stiff and painful future.  Now I feel like I'm free of pain that I didn't even really know I had.  I mean... eating different foods has cured my stiff neck?  I didn't even know that was possible.

I don't feel depressed and irritable.  I don't feel scattered and anxious.  I don't feel hopeless and helpless.  I just feel like a person who can get out of bed in the morning.

I don't know what I expected when I started this endeavor, but I'm pretty sure my results have been better.

I have 3 weeks to go, and at the end of the 30 days, I am going to slowly introduce foods back into my diet, one by one, paying attention to how I feel.  I'm suspecting that dairy and sugar/refined flour are out for pretty much good, and I don't even care.  I'm not saying that I won't eat a single Christmas cookie, or that I'll never taste pizza again... but as far as my daily diet goes, I will happily eliminate them if it means feeling this wonderful.

I have no idea how much weight I've lost because the batteries are dead in my scale.  (I know that everybody always wants to know about weight when people start talking about juice fasting.)  I'm doing my best to not make this about weight, to focus on the way I'm feeling, on getting healthy, which only may or may not have something to do with my size.  BUT.  I am sure I am losing weight.  I don't know how I couldn't be.  I'll weigh myself at the end of the 30 days and let you know what happened.

Jesse asked me for a run down of my routine, so here it is.  (I don't do everything the same, every day, depending on our schedule, but I can give you a general idea.)

1. I juice in the morning, making two portions and saving the second in a freezer bag in the fridge, after being careful to squeeze all of the air out to prevent oxidation as much as possible.  (Some people have time to juice more than once per day.  I just don't.)  I drink a big glass of veggie juice.  (Tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, parsley, bell pepper, celery, kale, spinach, lettuce, sweet potato, basil... some combination of these things, usually.  All from my garden or the farm market.)

2. I eat a piece of fruit, mid morning.

3. At lunch time I eat a salad or cauliflower "rice" with veggies and coconut water and basil, or vegan, grain free zucchini "lasagna" with cauliflower ricotta, mushrooms and tomatoes.  Or I might eat some veggies sauteed with a tiny drop of coconut oil and some tamari.  (I have lots of mad vegan scientist recipes that are to die for.  Let me know if you're interested.)

4. Mid-afternoon, I drink the rest of my juice from the fridge.

5. At dinner time, I eat cut up fruit and salad.  I might make a soup in the crockpot with veggies, basil and kale.  Sweet potato fries roasted in a tiny spray of olive oil with a little bit of salt.  Steamed kale and garlic are good.  I had sea weed salad, last night and lettuce wraps with fajita veggies seasoned with cumin and tamari the other night.

6. In the evening, I have a smoothie, some banana "ice cream" blended with coconut water, or some fruit or even dried fruit.  (Scouty and I went to the movies and I brought freeze dried strawberries and lemon-basil water.)

So, basically, I am eating all day long.  It's awesome.  Also, I drink tons and tons of water.

I do get cravings, but they pass.  This week was PMS week, and I seriously did crave chocolate for a few days straight.  My family ordered pizza yesterday, and it seemed kind of amazing.  I've also had a weird thing for the idea of cherry pie, even though I haven't eaten cherry pie in probably like... ten years.  These cravings aren't a big deal, though.  They might make me pick up a loaf of bread out of my mom's grocery cart at Whole Foods and smell it sensuously, but that's the extent of the damage.  I don't feel like I'm in any danger at all of like... freaking out and eating a brownie, or something.  The first few days might have been a little bit like that, where I felt like, "How will I DO this?"  But I feel totally in control, now.

So, that's it.  It's pretty easy and straight forward, and for me, totally worth it.  I'm even looking forward to the next 3 weeks and beyond, and I haven't been feeling that way, lately.


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